Desni Dantone

This review was originally posted on Bookish Things & MoreQuickie Review
This will be a quickie. I really enjoyed this book. It was definitely different, and I love how mythology is woven into the story.

Kris takes everything in with ease, even though I’d be completely freaking out. She is thrown into this new world without really knowing what is gong on. She doesn’t know who she’s supposed to trust. I love that she never gives up, and always fights her way through something if she can.

There is some romance, but it doesn’t take away from the story. I love how it’s just sprinkled throughout the book. You know Kris has feelings for a certain someone, and even though she complains about how he doesn’t notice her, she doesn’t let that take away from trying to figure out what is going on.

I'll definitely be continuing on with this series.
… (altro)

3.5
I was pulled right into the story with its increasingly surmounting unanswered questions. At several points during the book, I was worried that too many questions were piling up. There are so many loose ends to be tied up and I was sincerely worried that there are too many coincidences to be believable. But Ms. Dantone came through with a mega-whopper at the end, which made it all worth-while.

I’m happy to say that I was rewarded for my patience. Many – if not nearly all – of my questions were answered. Many of the presumed coincidences also turned out not to be coincidences, which was a relief.

Considering this is the first book in a trilogy, I have great hopes that my still outstanding questions will be answered in due course and that loose ends will be tied up.

I will discuss some of the concerns that I have and questions left unanswered below:

(BEWARE: SPOILERS!)

It is too much of a coincidence that out of the 7 billion people on the earth, it just happened – by chance – that the super-hybrid was chosen as a random human to be saved. Was it a coincidence? I hope further development of the story proves it not to be.

I also had a few problems swallowing the believability of our protagonist’s actions.

Unconvincing was – to me – how long Kris is willing to wait for answers that she knows Nathan has. She keeps retreating to the argument that she won’t get any more answers out of him tonight, so she just gives up. The questions are too pressing to go one more week, night, hour, or even one more minute.

I understand the author wants to build up the suspense with a flurry of unanswered questions, which will be revealed in good time (or all at once in a banger finale) – and I absolutely love stories like that. The Harry Potter books are developed brilliantly in this manner. Every answer to an unanswered question reveals several more unanswered questions, all of which are interconnected, and then are finally revealed in a mind-blowing climax.

In the case of the Harry Potter mysteries, Harry runs into a brick wall in his search for answers, so we, the readers, run into a brick wall too. Harry doesn’t know where to get the answers to his questions, so the search continues.

The difference in “Ignited” is that Kris knows that Nathan has many of the answers she is looking for – urgent questions pertaining to life and death issues, but she is simply willing to wait for the answers because… why? I’m not sure. Because she is scared of Nathan? So that the reader is not offered too much at once? It seems to me like an artificially implanted tool used to create suspense, but which doesn’t come naturally out of the story line.

Considering that Nathan could be killed at any moment, and that he is almost killed multiple times, it is unbelievable that Kris would put off pressing him for answers for even one more moment. It is understandable that he can’t or won’t answer her questions while they are running for their lives, or fighting off danger, but during the many, many hours that they are simply walking, or hiding out in the cabin, it is unconvincing that Kris doesn’t make a full-fledged effort to pry out of Nathan the answers to questions that are of existential pertinence to her life. Who is she? Who is trying to kill her? Why are they trying to kill her? Who is she to Nathan? Who is Nathan? Why is he constantly trying to protect her? Kris asks Nathan each question once. He refuses to answer or gives a partial answer. She doesn’t ask again (until much later in the story).

Similarly, after Kris reconnects with Alec, he tells her straight off that he has answers she is looking for – but he will tell her tomorrow. So she climbs into bed with Nathan. Huh? I had to do a double take. I reread the passage several times to be sure that I really understood it right. She doesn’t demand answers? She gives Alec a bunch of information he is looking for, but is perfectly happy to wait until morning until he answers hers? These are not small questions. People are trying to kill her left and right! Even the people she has been led to believe are on her side are trying to kill her!!! The way things are going for her, they could be attacked again and Alec could be dead by morning. She should be demanding answers immediately!

It bothered me as well that Kris doesn’t ask Alec and Callie what happened to Gran. When we learn that Alec and Callie have been at Kris’s house to get clothes and toiletries for her, the first question that I as a reader asked was: Did you see Gran? Was she alright? If Gran wasn’t there, did it look like she had been there recently? Did the house look like it did the night Kris left (trashed after a battle), or was it cleaned up? Were there any signs that Gran was still alive? But, alas, the book ends without any clarification as to Gran’s fate whatsoever. We assume that she died, but we don’t know for sure. After living with Gran for six years, it just seems unbelievable that Kris would not even care enough to ask.

And why would Kris simply take Nathan’s word for it that the Kala are good and the Skotadi are bad? Alec just saved her life and the Kala tried to kill her! Isn’t that cause enough for a reevaluation of Nathan’s interpretation of good and evil?

I was torn between giving this book 3 or 4 stars – I reserve 4 stars for books I really love and 5 stars for books that blow my mind. Since I breezed through this story without a moment’s hesitation, and since it kept my interest throughout, I will give it a 3.5 star rating and hope that the trilogy continues to keep my interest and answer my questions.
… (altro)